By Bart Greenberg***The theater piece, Fog and Ice. is the umbrella title for three short plays presented by JHW Productions at Theater Row. Two of the works are early scripts by Eugene O’Neill and the third is by the lesser-known Esther E. Galbrath; all examine the souls of men who venture into the most challenging of environments. And each features a twist that was assuredly a surprise when the works were first written. It’s a fast moving evening, clocking in at under 80 minutes, with a fine five-member acting company under the efficient direction of Jerry Heymann.
O’Neill’s Ile (1921) opens the evening. The title tries to capture the heavy New England accented version of “oil.” The year is 1895 and a whaling ship has been locked in by ice for months with no escape—and no whales captured. Food is running out. The crew is threatening mutiny. The Captain (John Long) refuses to listen to reason, determined to maintain his almost historic run of successful voyages. Complicating the situation, the Captain has chosen to bring his unhappy wife (Charlotte Cohn) along. She is slowly sliding into melancholia as he refuses to consider her desire to simply return home when that becomes a possibility. Cohn is brilliant as the struggling spouse; Long is steady but misses the almost compulsive ego that drives the seaman onward. Together, they make an interesting sketch of a marriage of two individuals who love each other but are at cross purposes—a relationship dynamic O’Neill would return to many times, but especially in his masterpiece A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Simon Feil did fine work as the leader of the mutiny, 
making the audience see the mob backing him up.
The next piece, Fog, was also early O’Neill, written and set in 1914. An interesting piece with an ending that feels more Rod Serling than the older playwright. Two men, a poet (Feil) and a businessman (Steven Rattazzi) are on a life raft, along with a mute woman clutching her dead baby. Like the first story in which the characters are trapped by ice, here they are isolated by night and fog, even from each other. As the two men disagree on how they should proceed to find rescue, and what their responsibility is to protect others, they reveal their very different sense of morality.Both actors bring these characters to life, escaping what could be cliche figures. Praise also is due to the subtle and mood-setting lighting design of Max Stroeher.
The Brink of Silence, written by Galbraith in 1917, brings the audience further south, the whole way to Antarctica—and more men cut off from the outside world. If a bit less elegantly constructed than the 
O’Neill pieces, it still presents some interesting character studies of opposing types. Feil creates a very different character as a frustrated and eager-to-escape scientist, while Long brings a fine steadiness to a man who has made his peace with his fate. Jesse Castellanos is also very strong as a younger interloper with needs of his own. The twist here is fairly easy to spot, but that is the fault of the script as opposed to the performers.
Heymann does an excellent job of keeping the plays moving along. Given how dark the material is, with nary a laugh throughout, he manages to never let things get dull nor depressing. Brian Dudkiewicz provided very flexible scenery that allowed the evening to move quickly between playlets, and Julia Squier designed suitable costumes.
Fog and Ice plays at Theater Row, 410 W.42nd St., NYC, thru February 28, 2026. Tickets can be booked here or at the box office.
Photos by Hunter Canning
